William S. Major, born on January 23, 1851, in Clinton County, Indiana, was a key pioneer in Hand County, South Dakota. Major, who owned 1,500 acres of land, played a significant role in the county’s organization and development. He moved to South Dakota in 1882, claiming government land and establishing a successful farm. A prominent figure in local politics, Major served three terms in the state senate. Known for his contributions to both agriculture and civic affairs, he was also an active member of the Presbyterian Church in Wessington, Beadle County.
William S. Major is one of the honored pioneers of Hand County, in whose organization and development he has played an important part, while he represented the county in the state senate for three successive terms and is a man of prominence in industrial and civic affairs in this section of the state. He is the owner of a valuable landed estate of fifteen hundred acres, has been signally prospered in temporal affairs and commands the unqualified esteem of the community in which he has so long made his home.
Mr. Major was born in Clinton County, Indiana, on the 23d of January, 1851, being a son of George and Amanda (Snoddy) Major, the former of whom was there engaged in farming until his death, having been a man of prominence in his section and having served two years as a member of the state senate. He died at the age of eighty-two years and his devoted wife entered into eternal rest at the age of fifty-seven years. They became the parents of eight children, of whom five are living. The subject early grew inured to the strenuous work of the homestead farm, in which connection his services were so much in requisition that his educational advantages were much curtailed during his youth, this handicap having, however, been fully overcome by the lessons which he has learned under the direction of that wisest of all headmasters, experience. He has been a close observer, has read and studied with discrimination, and has thus become a man of marked intellectual breadth and comprehensiveness and definite information in regard to the questions and issues of the day. After leaving school Mr. Major continued to be actively identified with the great basic art of agriculture in Indiana until the year 1880, when he went to the state of Washington, where he remained about two years. He was not satisfied with the outlook in that section of the Union, and returned to Indiana, where he remained a few months, at the expiration of which, in February, 1882, he came to South Dakota and became one of the early settlers in Hand County, where he exercised his legal prerogatives by taking up three claims of government land—homestead, pre-emption and tree claims. To the improvement of this property he forthwith directed his attention with characteristic energy and ability, and the prosperity which has attended his efforts has been most gratifying. He is now the owner of fifteen hundred acres of valuable land in the county, and of this amount six hundred acres are under cultivation while the remainder is used for grazing purposes and the raising of hay. He has erected substantial modern buildings on his place and it is one of the model farms of this section of the state, while he gives his attention to diversified agriculture and to the raising of livestock of high grade. He was prominently concerned in the organization of the county, and was a member of the board of county commissioners at the time when the memorable struggle occurred in regard to the locating of the county seat, in which connection he favored claims of the village of St. Lawrence, as against those of Miller, to which latter the victory was finally gained. In politics Mr. Major was reared in the faith of the Democratic party, as exemplified by Jefferson and Jackson, and he was affiliated with the same until the organization of the Greenback party, when he transferred his allegiance to the same and supported Peter Cooper for the presidency. Upon the organization of the Populist party he joined its ranks and has ever since supported its cause, being a man of decisive convictions and ever having the courage of the same. In 1890 Mr. Major was elected to the state senate, in which he served with distinction, being chosen as his own successor in 1892 and being again elected in 1896, so that he served three terms in the dignified deliberative body of the state legislature. He is one of the prominent and valued members of the Presbyterian Church in Wessington, Beadle County, which is his post office address, the town being five miles distant from his fine home place.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.